Tag Archives: wood pellets

Why Use Biomass Energy?

Biomass is a fancy name for material from plants and animals. Some kinds of biomass can be burned to produce energy (Biomass Energy). The most common examples of Biomass is wood / forests and increasingly “Energy Crops”.

Through out history our homes have been heated with fire, fuelled by wood, all over the world – so one could say Biomass Energy is not really a new concept.

Biomass is a renewable, low carbon fuel and brings additional environmental and social benefits. Biomass boilers do not only power central heating systems but also provide hot water and can operate on a timer, which dispenses fuel into the burner when required. Plus best off all, as explained in my previous blog about RHI, the government offers a grant that pays for the system, installation and pays an incentive for using it while saving on heating bills and help the environment. Can it get any better?

You may ask yourself what kind of materials does my biomass boiler need? Biomass boilers will burn a whole variety of bio-matter such as grains, wood chips, olive kernels, saw dust, wood logs, cocoa pellets and wood pellets. The main categories of material are:

We do not need to worry about being short of materials as with a constant supply of waste – from construction and demolition activities, to wood not used in papermaking, to municipal solid waste – green energy production can continue indefinitely.
Biomass power improves forest health and air quality. The biomass power industry removes millions of tons of forest debris annually, improving forest health and dramatically reducing the risk of forest fires. In addition, the biomass industry diverts millions of tons of waste material from landfills and open burns.

Biomass power is reliable. Because it is not affected by changes in weather or environmental conditions, biomass power is an extremely reliable renewable energy source. Biomass Power Plants can produce a steady and dependable flow of electricity 24 hours a day, and seven days a week.

Biomass power employs a huge amount of people worldwide

Biomass is the natural solution to meeting higher renewable standards. Specifically, biomass power can play a major role in parts of the UK that lack sustainable access to wind or solar power. Biomass power holds the greatest opportunity for achieving a strong national standard for renewable electricity.

What is the difference between biomass and fossil fuels?

In simple terms – we are talking time-scale

Biomass takes carbon out of the atmosphere while it is growing, and returns it as it is burned. Biomass energy crops are managed on a sustainable basis and maintain a closed carbon cycle with no net increase in atmospheric CO2 levels

In the case of Energy Crops, Biomass is harvested as part of a constantly replenished crop. This is either during woodland management or as part of a continuous programme of replanting with the new growth taking up CO2 from the atmosphere at the same time as it is released by combustion of the previous harvest.

DECC was planning to launch the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) for non-domestic generators on 30 September 2011. State aid approval is a necessary condition for the scheme to go ahead. As part of that process, the European Commission expressed concerns that the large biomass tariff was set too high.

The Commission has now given State Aid approval to the RHI subject to the large biomass tariff being reduced from 2.7p per KWh to 1p per KWh. Revised regulations have now been re-laid in Parliament to reflect the required amendment to the tariff for large scale biomass. We hope to open the scheme to applications by the end of November 2011, subject to Parliamentary approval.